Hate crime hoaxer Jussie Smollett will be returning to television this fall on the competition show Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.
According to The Hollywood Reporter (THR), Smollett will be “one of 18 celebrities taking on a series of challenges that mirror those of military special forces training.”
The season’s other contestants are Kody Brown (TLC’s Sister Wives), Brittany Cartwright (Bravo’s The Valley), Randall Cobb (former NFL player), Eric Decker (former NFL player), Jessie James Decker (country music artist), Andrew East (former NFL player), Shawn Johnson East (gold medal-winning Olympic gymnast), Mark Estes (“internet personality”), Gia Giudice, Teresa Giudice (The Real Housewives of New Jersey), Chanel Iman (model), Brianna LaPaglia (“internet personality” aka Brianna Chickenfry), Johnny Manziel (former Heisman Trophy winner and NFL player), Eva Marcille (model and actress), Ravi V. Patel (Fox’s Animal Control), Christie Pearce Rampone (World Cup winner with the U.S. women’s soccer team) and Nick Young (former NBA player).
The cast also features a few familial relationships: Eric and Jessie James Decker are married, as are Andrew East and Shawn Johnson East. Teresa and Gia Giudice are mother and daughter.
In early 2019, the Empire actor claimed he fell victim to a hate crime on a cold winter’s night in Chicago at the hands of two men who derided him with homophobic slurs while yelling “this is MAGA country” as they tied a noose around his neck. Many in the media took Smollett’s story at face value until evidence revealed that he had hired two brothers from Nigeria to stage the attack, supposedly in an effort to boost his salary on the show.
After Smollett turned himself into police for the felony charge of filing a false police report, the situation took a turn for the worse when the charges against him were suddenly dropped by Chicago prosecutor Kim Foxx, prompting outrage from both the Chicago Police Department and Mayor Rahm Emanuel. In an obvious attempt to rectify the situation and regain city trust, a Chicago judge appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the way Smollett’s case was handled.
